Often unobserved in contemporary American
culture, the Black Press is an institution in the history and momentum of
Black culture, economics and politics. For over 175 years, Black
newspapers have been the center of enterprise and information in America’s Black communities. From slavery
times to now, Black newspapers and their publishers have been the primary
voices for, and about, African Americans.

One hundred
and twenty-three years after America’s first newspaper, Freedom's Journal
became the first one for Blacks. It was published in 1827 by Samuel
Cornish and John Russwurm the same year slavery was abolished in New York State.
Freedom’s Journal was started as an alternative to white-controlled
New York publications that press that presented African Americans in
derogatory terms. America’s first Black millionaire, Paul Cuffe was an
investor and influence toward the paper’s abolitionist positions. Freedom’s
Journal masthead
stated what 4,000 papers following it proclaim: "devoted to the
improvement of the colored population." Freedom’s Journal
lasted until 1829, when Russwurm emigrated to Liberia, following Cuffe’s and his first
settlement of Black colonizers, to become governor of the Maryland Colony.

Freedom's
Journal initiated a trend of
papers that fought for Blacks’ liberation and rights. It was followed by
Frederick Douglass’ North Star which he published in collaboration
with William Lloyd Garrison.
Throughout decades of chronicling African-American interests, the overall
question for African American publishers was what that of balance between
race militancy and social accommodation.

Blacks’ greatest
leaders used newspapers spearhead their movements by making the issues of
African Americans visible. From Cornish, Russwurm and Douglass, Black
publishers have been forerunners for justice and economic empowerment for
their communities. Between 1881 and 1901 Booker T. Washington created a
national network of newspapers and schools which resulted in the National
Business League. In the 1920s, Marcus Garvey’s Negro World
newspaper was the vehicle upon which he built African Americans’ greatest
mass-movement for equal rights and building of capital assets. Elijah
Muhammad built the Nation of Islam with Muhammad Speaks.

During the
early and mid-20th century, the Chicago Defender was the most
influential Black newspaper in America. Published in Chicago with a
national editorial perspective, the Defender played a leading role
in the migration of Blacks from the South to the industrialized North.
Founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott, the Defender used editorials
attacking white oppression of Blacks to increase its circulation in
southern states. By 1929 the Defender was selling more than
250,000 copies each week.

As African-Americans migrated from fields
to urban centers, virtually every large city with a significant Black
population soon had Black-oriented newspapers. Examples were Abbot’s
Defender, the Detroit Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, and
(New York) Amsterdam News. From the 1930s through the 1950s, Black
newspapers were highly profitable and gave African-Americans the news
through the lens of their own. These newspapers were a source of pride
for African-Americans and focal point of cohesion for them to fight
oppression.

Largely
ignored in American society and culture, the Black press has always been
critically important to African Americans’ progress. In 2004, the Black
Press of America remains the most creditable information medium for most
African Americans. The history of the Urban League, NAACP, and
integration of the military and civil rights movement was made with Black
newspapers being mediums for their issues. Today there are over 200 Black
newspapers with a combined readership of 11 million weekly. Most Black
newspapers are weeklies – the Chicago Defender and New York Challenger are
dailies. Some are twice-weekly. The Baltimore/Washington
Afro-American, Philadelphia
Tribune, and Indianapolis
Recorder are just three of a score of Black newspapers with over 100
years old.

In the early 1970s, Dr. Calvin Rolark,
founder of Washington, D.C.’s Informer newspaper started the United
Black Fund, a $17 million-a-year charity organization in the city.
Daytona Beach (FL) publisher Charles Cherry serves on the County Council,
Savannah’s (GA) Floyd Adams is the city’s mayor and boxing promoter Don
King is publisher of Call and Post publications based in Cleveland.